Scoot: Is revenge motivating attacks on the streets of New Orleans?

by Scoot,posted Jan 22 2014 6:15PM

New Orleans police are looking for suspects following a brutal attack on a New Orleans musician very early Wednesday morning in the French Quarter. Police say that Doug Potter, a local musician, was leaving a gig when he was beaten just after midnight Wednesday morning in the 800 block of Conti.

According to Doug’s brother Dave Potter, who works at WWL, robbery was apparently not the motive. If robbery was not the motive, then was the attack part of the “knockout game” in America, where people seek to throw a knockout punch hoping to render an innocent person on the street unconscious?

The reason I bring up the possibility that this attack may have been motivated by revenge stems from something someone told me recently about my attackers. I was talking to a friend in a bar and he introduced me to someone else at the table. He told his friend who I was and that I was attacked walking to the radio station in the early morning hours.

Without hesitation, the gentleman who was black, said, “They attacked you because you are white and it was about revenge, not robbery.” When I was attacked, I found it unusual that the primary attacker could feel my wallet in my front pocket and my cell phone in my back pocket during the attack. They did grab my satchel, which only contained paperwork for the show and no computer or anything of value. Why did they not steal my wallet and cell phone? Was robbery not the real motive?

If there are attacks where robbery is obviously not the motive, then the question is – what is the motivation? Are there black males roaming less-traveled streets in the early morning hours seeking to attack whites because of built up frustration for past and present racial injustice? Is there a growing attitude to “get back” at some people who are perceived to represent certain socio-economic groups that are believed to be responsible for racial injustice? If this is the case, the problem is that innocent people, like myself, are being punished for injustices that we do not support.

There are obviously more questions than answers, but these questions need to be answered. The only way to fight against an enemy is to understand the motives of the enemy.

For those who are reading this and do not listen to “The Scoot Show” on WWL on a regular basis, I feel compelled to say that identifying the suspects in my case (or any case) as black is a way to most accurately describing the suspects and in no way is an attempt to label all blacks as perpetrators or individuals with racist motives of revenge. How quickly many come to that conclusion!

Only honesty will expose whether revenge against whites is a common motive that drives some young blacks to attack innocent people on the street. And there is nothing racist about trying to determine if that is a motivation for certain street attacks.

I cannot pretend to understand what it feels like to be discriminated against because of skin color, but I do know that it is wrong to target any member of a group as guilty for racial injustice.

When YOU are attacked - for nothing more than the color of your skin - YOU are being discriminated against because of your skin color. If someone attacks you because your skin is a different color then they are racists regardless of their skin color or their perceived sufferings. You didn't do it, did you?
Be real and stop trying to be so "politically correct."
You can't pick up doggie droppings by the "clean end."

White, black or otherwise - these thugs will hopefully run into someone who will put a bullet in their brain. Is it any wonder why so many people want to carry a concealed weapon for protection?

01/22/2014 10:13PM

Because

Of course more people with weapons will clear the whole thing up instead of leading to more bigoted cowboys hiding behind the Zimmerman defense. Get real.

01/22/2014 10:14PM

ARMED AND READY

We have the right to protect ourselves! If these people want to use revenge as their motive to attack any race we have the right to use a weapon and take them down before they kill us. If the NOPD security cameras can show these people initiating an attack on innocent people and they happen to be carrying a weapon if they use it and kill the attackers we should thank them first and no charges should ever be levied against an innocent person protecting themselves and others.This is a great argument for concealed or UNCONCEALED weapons to be legal.

01/22/2014 10:30PM

No it isn't.

Every criminal with a gun got a gun that was once legal. I agree with Chris Rock - Tax the bullets.

01/23/2014 7:12AM

HATE Crime

If this was done only because the victim was white this is a hate crime just as it would be if the KKK killed a black man or some one killed a gay man because he is gay. If so shouldn't the FBI get involved?

01/23/2014 8:03AM

hate knows no color

I work in a shop on Canal Street and on Monday a group of black thugs attacked an Asian shopkeeper in our block who had walked outside to check messages on his phone and they jumped him and beat him because they though he was taking pictures of them! Twoothers on our block, one black and one white pulled the bullies off the merchant. Shameful. And the city does noting about the street violence.

01/23/2014 8:23AM

Stop and frisk

Make quarter a "stop and frisk for any reason" zone. If police had the right to stop for any reason, they could harass the thugs enough to clean up the quarter

01/23/2014 8:24AM

The Anything Goes Noise Ordinance and Big Easy Culture

The Anything Goes Noise Ordinance and Big Easy Culture has a lot to do with the thugs who come to the French Quarter.
The purpose of the noise ordinance is to get the carpetbaggers to LIVE in the FQ as they PAY TAXES...Right now, the FQ residents are like empty summer homes.
*** NO FREE LUNCH ****
The few residents in the FQ are somewhat clueless on that fact there is no free lunch.
The LOUD music and noise on the street allows pedestrians to
(1) Hang outside
(2) Drink cheap beer from the to-go bars
(3) BYOB beer
(4) Not tip the bartender or waitress as they are not in the bar.
(4) Listen to music without paying for the music or tipping the musician.
(6) Not pay cover charges.
See how anything goes noise ordinance that works?
The more people you see OUTSIDE on Bourbon St means they are not INSIDE the bar tipping or paying for stuff.
As a Bourbon St business or bar, you want the pedestrians along Bourbon St to PAY for stuff, correct?
Note: If there is no such thing as a free lunch, how can there really be a free show, like Mardi Gras?
Twitter: AhContraire

01/23/2014 8:24AM

More on the FREE LUNCH CULTURE of NOLA

BOURBON STREET IS MAINLY PEOPLE WATCHING:
Whenever you see the local TV, you see a camera of people on the Bourbon St, who, but the way, are OUTSIDE of the BARS, not paying for stuff like cover charges, beer, food, etc. That means bar owners, waitresses, hostesses, bouncers and musicians are NOT GETTING PAID in tips or for food or drink or music.
CURRENT NOISE ORDINANCE MEANS FREE MUSIC:
With all the people OUTSIDE on Bourbon St walking up and down, they are only sight-seeing and "people watching".
FINANCIAL POINT ONE:
These people watchers and tourists can buy a single drink, e.g. hurricane, and walk up and down Bourbon St, listening to FREE MUSIC, without going into another bar the entire night and paying for anything else. They can just hang outside the clubs with a beer in their hand they purchased at a To-Go Bar for cheap and that's all they will spend for the night. Many of the people watchers DO NOT EVEN HAVE A DRINK IN THEIR HAND...that means they probably didn't have more than one drink if they entered a bar. And why should they? The Noise Ordinance allows these short-sighted bar owners to play music so that it can easily be heard on the street for the marketing effect of "VIP Exclusivity" and "Listen-2-Me" effect. Yet, they inadvertently and short-shortsightedly have given their music away for free as now there is more interesting people outside on Bourbon St than inside a bar.
FINANCIAL POINT TWO:
Many Bourbon St people watchers can come from outside the French Quarter from another bar and bring their drinks with them and just "people watch" via walking up and down Bourbon St. They can come from as far away as the NorthShore or Mississippi as Bourbon St stays open all night and can get a cheap beer along the way at some gas station, grocery store, or at a To-Go bar and just walk up and down Bourbon St "people watching".
See how both the current noise ordinance and public intoxication works against the business operations of bars and clubs? People watching and Listen to music for free, outside of a bar. And drink outside on the street for super cheap without tipping. All without a cover charges? (If you are bar owner, waitress, bouncer or musician, you should be asking yourself why you are so poor when the streets are so crowded.)
BARS OUTSIDE the FRENCH QUARTER:
See these bars that are NOT within the FQ. The new Noise Ordinance would be good for them as their potential patrons and customers would be INSIDE the BAR paying for stuff instead of HANGING OUTSIDE NOT PAYING FOR STUFF...
Yet the bar owner has to be responsible and pay for security for the people hanging outside not paying for stuff.
Again, if you believe there is no free lunch, how can there be such a thing as a free show? Or free music?
From the "anything goes" noise ordinance to Mardi Gras, the business philosophy of Nola bars and festivals, is the same old financially short-sighted "free lunch" tactic which has never worked.
Even Las Vegas, while losing money, charges for it's Las Vegas Shows. These Shows make up 66% of all The Strip revenue while the gambling only makes up only 33%. Plus, Las Vegas gets 40 million visitors per year while also charging for it's shows. Yet NOLA thinks it can give it's music for free and make a profit? Dream on.
Nola is the poorest of the poor. Why is this?
Could it be the "Free Lunch" Mardi Gras and "Free Lunch" Second Lines?

01/23/2014 10:22AM

they laugh at us fools

We have given blacks ( as-a-whole ) many or most US cities. We have deserted the urban public schools (example: Ann Coulter, in examining FBI files, attests that b > w rape is THOUSANDS of times the opposite....would you send your beloved daughter to an urban school ? ).
This is largely about simple POWER. " We " are easy pickings. We have avoided racial realities for 5 decades. As the "rev" Jeremiah Wright said: " the chickens are coming home to roost " .

01/23/2014 2:09PM

You don't

Perpetrate decades of slavery, economic and political marginalization and then expect it not to take deep roots in minority communities. While I don't defend violence, ever, sometimes the roots of the violence run far deeper than we think about. You don't discriminate for centuries and expect it to have NO impact.

01/23/2014 4:32PM

These r hate crimes

Scoot these r hate crimes committed by black thugs who have no morals an reval in there ability to inflict violent crimes on the innocent, which also includes blacks. I agree with stop an frisk in the quarter.

01/24/2014 8:55AM

The Cajun

We as white bust start standing up to these thugs and let them know if you can not live in society,then society needs to take you out

01/31/2014 9:49PM

You were a victim of a hate crime

I do not want to burst your bubble, but you were a victim of a hate crime. My gay friend in high school had his hair set on fire for talking to a black girl while I was lucky just to be beat up while the bus driver watched. It was a common and understood practice, that white guys could not date or talk to black girls at my high school. It has been a lot of years since that incident and JFK has long been closed.